Playing Politics With Women’s Health

The former Surgeon General—often called “the nation’s doctor”—recently testified to Congress that Bush administration officials repeatedly pushed him to soften, change or withhold important public health information. Among the reports Dr. Richard H. Carmona was pressured to suppress? Those that would support access to emergency contraception and comprehensive sex education. Unfortunately, it’s a problem that reaches beyond the Surgeon General’s office and has been going on for years, women’s health advocates contend. “People believe that religiously based social conservatives have direct lines to the powers that be within the U.S. government … and are influencing public healthy policy, practice and research in ways that are unprecedented and very dangerous,” Judith Auerbach, ph.D., a former NHI official told Glamour last year. As Dr. Carmona testified, “There is nothing worse than ignoring science, or marginalizing the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds.” See how this kind of political influence has harmed women’s health.